ON Monday September 12 the TUC Annual Congress was lobbied by 300 of the over 700 locked out Gate Gourmet workers.
The Congress then passed the following resolution unanimously committing ‘the General Council and affiliates to support members at Gate Gourmet by all legal means and to unite trade unionists in a campaign for just and ILO-compliant employment law.’
TGWU leader Woodley told the Congress: ‘If solidarity is a crime then send us all to jail your lordships, because that’s what we might have to do to win our rights.’
Brendan Barber said ‘we pledge our full support’, and most of the trade union leaders made the same pledge.
What Woodley and Barber did not tell Congress is that they had already betrayed the Gate Gourmet workers, on the eve of the TUC Congress.
On September 9th the TGWU issued a press statement confirming that ‘it has agreed with Gate Gourmet selection criteria for redundancy and the process of ratifying the company’s rescue plans.’
On its website, Gate Gourmet made the point that the union leaders had agreed to a selection criteria for compulsory redundancies.
This agreement was made three days before Woodley made his ‘jail me’ speech, and moved the TUC motion.
Further, on September 28th, Gate Gourmet issued a statement saying that it was delighted ‘to report that the Transport and General Workers’ Union has finally agreed to the proposal put forward by the company last month to resolve the current labour dispute, and to an earlier proposal to change working practices agreed in June.’
It added: ‘As we have said all along, we are happy to consider re-engaging some of the workers dismissed for staging an illegal walkout. The speed at which we will be able to do this depends on when the union gains the approval of its membership for the agreed proposals, and on the completion of the necessary compromise agreements. . .’
It continued: ‘Gate Gourmet thanks Brendan Gold for agreeing to the proposals, and Brendan Barber for his unwavering support and assistance throughout the negotiation process. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our newfound relationship with the union at Heathrow.’
Here we have a company, described by Woodley as being ‘gangster capitalist’, publicly thanking the TGWU and the leader of the TUC for agreeing to hundreds of compulsory sackings, including the procedure to select those to be sacked, and the company’s survival plan, that changes all the terms and conditions of service. No wonder Gate Gourmet likes this ‘newfound relationship’.
What the union leaders have agreed to is that 300 workers are to lose their jobs, with at least 144 being compulsorily sacked and the rest going voluntarily, and that 400 are to be re-employed. The 300 are to get just two weeks pay for every year that they have worked.
The compromise that the company refers to, and which the TGWU and TUC have agreed to, is that all the 700 locked out workers must sign away all their legal rights, including their employment rights. If they will not, then nobody will be re-employed.
This is what Woodley and Barber have agreed to, and have pledged to work might and main to achieve. This is the newfound relationship. It comes under an old name, ‘company unionism’ at the expense of the membership’s jobs, wages and basic rights.
The seven page compromise agreement spells out that: ‘The Agreement will prevent you from taking any legal action that you may be entitled to bring in the future which is connected to any extent directly or indirectly with the dismissal of the dismissed employees.’
Further, Clause 4.1 of the Compromise Agreement says ‘You accept the terms of this Agreement in full and final settlement of all claims of any nature which you have or may have against the company. . .’
It lists over 25 such ‘claims’ including breach of contract, unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, unlawful discrimination, unlawful deductions from pay, health and safety, unlawful imprisonment and assault or otherwise ‘arising from the events at Heathrow on or about 10/11 August 2005.’
Every locked out worker has to sign this ‘compromise’ or there is no deal. This is what Barber and Woodley have signed up to, rubbishing the resolution carried unanimously at the TUC Congress. The TUC General Council must censure them and rip this rotten company union deal up. The TUC must take action to win this dispute and see to it that the ‘gangster capitalists’ are defeated and all 700 workers are returned to their jobs on their established terms and conditions.
